Raffa has been wearing his leg brace for almost two months. We were thrilled by almost daily progress for quite a while, much to our relief. Progress continues more slowly now, but continues nonetheless.
What did we see? He began to put more weight on his injured hind leg. His gait became much less lopsided. One day he began to stand on his left leg when visiting a tree. He is often much more peppy and seems not to be in pain, except when we palpate the sore muscles.
There are a lot of sore muscles. His right side has been working harder especially the rear leg. The iliop soaz, which had been tight in the past, has gotten tight again. Often his back muscles and shoulders are sore.
The left front end is doing double duty for the injured left rear leg. Even his neck loves a massage.
We are cold lasering him as prescribed and that helps a lot.
His walks remain short and controlled. We are lucky to live in a pretty place with lots of distraction. He gets to dig, sit in the shade on the hot days and sniff around in interesting places. His favorites toys are around and lots of big frozen bones and peanut butter filled kongs. We have added steps for him in a couple of places around the house just to make sure he doesn’t over-extend his left leg. We want the scar tissue to form and remains in place.
Our boy learned some new habits now that we are at home so much: he’s begun to jump on the couch (which gets much more use now). Another barrier needed.
Our physical therapist checks him monthly and advises us on the right stretches to help relieve some of the muscular tightness.
We’ve been advised this recovery can take some time. We also know that the tplo surgery, the alternative, also takes several months to heal. And comes with different risks.
We’re sitting tight and are willing to give it time.
Update: Today on our usual short walk he didn’t want to lie down, not even once! Baby steps all add up.